Reading VA: Reading Frostbite (ON HOLD)

Ch 11: TEN

RPOV
"Do we want to read chapter ten now? Or save it for tomorrow?" asked Mama after dinner.
"I just wanna sleep that last chapter off," I admitted with a yawn.
"If Rose is for bed then so am I," said Dimitri while patting my knee.
"Paul and Zoya are for bed," added Karo, "and so am I." Paul looked like he was about to protest, all the while Zoya was already asleep in his lap. Sonya had put Nadi down before we read chapter nine.
"I'm only too eager to get some more sleep," contributed Sonya. Sydney, naturally, agreed to go to bed. Eventually the general consensus was a good night's sleep. Although Abe and my mother looked distinctly uncomfortable at the thought of sharing a room after their fight earlier.

"You okay, Roza?" asked a very concerned Dimitri as we changed for bed. Or, well, as I tried to change for bed, he had decided to wrap his arms around my bare waist.
"You know I'm not," I mumbled and buried into his bare chest. His scent wrapped around me just like his arms and he placed kiss to the top of my head while he ran a hand through the hair he'd just removed from its bun. Mmm home. As long as I was in his arms I was home. That was one thing in this world I was certain of and had been for a long while... subconsciously. They say home is where the heart is and my heart had been Dimitri's from the moment I met him, that was the moment I truly found my home.

"How about..." slowly started a musing, scheming Dimitri, "how about we spend this coming Christmas in Russia with Mama and the others?"
"And Turkey? With Abe?" I had no clue where that came from, but I knew I seriously felt like meeting his side of the family and spending quality time with the father I never knew.

I wanted to make Abe feel better about not being there for me when he really was a rare Moroi who wanted to be my daddy throughout my life. I may still hold a level of resentment towards both my parents, but I did want to at least completely mend my relationship with Abe since he was taking my side of things. We might clash because we use the same logic on the other, but we didn't fight like I did with Janine. I think it was because I knew nothing of him that it I found it easier to forgive him and make peace with him. That and he was there throughout the hardest time of my life so far, and he'd chosen to be there for me-even if it was through the feeble attempts to get me back here and graduated. He'd made sacrifices to be my dad even if I didn't know it at the time, and just like a real dad, he hadn't asked questions or judged me for the way I had returned to Novosibirsk.

"Of course we can, Roza," lovingly agreed Dimitri. "I'm getting the feeling you prefer him over Janine," chuckled my lover as he pulled us towards the bed.
"Of course I do," I retorted as though it was a painfully obvious fact and always had been. "He's never judged me, was there through the hardest part of my time in Russia even if I didn't know he was my father, he traveled that dangerous road to Baia in the middle of the night to make sure I didn't die. He Chose to step into my life and support me. Mom handed me over to St Vlad's without so much as a backwards glance until the ski trip. By then it was far too late-you were in my life and no matter how tough it was between us, no matter how illegal or problematic, you had already long-since become my home and constant, my sanctuary."
"Oh, Roza," he sighed. "I love you." We snuggled under the sheets and I was out like a light within moments.

DPOV
Something warm and wet fell onto my bare chest. Then another one. Then I heard muffled ragged breaths and felt small arms tighten around me. I'd know that anywhere. It was my Roza and she was more than upset.

"Roza?" I whispered into the night. "Roza, what's wrong?" I asked again when she hiccuped and shook her head into my chest. "Rose, please?" I cried in desperation. I felt absolutely helpless right now and it was tearing me up to see and hear her like this.
"It was just a dream, Comrade," she said through laboured breaths. "I'll be fine."
"Roza," I warned though not in a tone anywhere near the one I used when she was my student. Even I knew that'd spell the end of me. "I won't let you go through anything alone ever again, so please tell me."
"Okay," Rose gave a resigned sigh, "I just... well... it was about us in the future. You and I at the Academy. Only we weren't alone. We had a daughter and a son. And I mean they were ours, they had my hair and your eyes and were absolutely perfect and beautiful. I hate that I'm taking that from you," she rambled on.
"Roza, shhh," I cooed while holding her as close to me as possible. "I love you and don't care if we can't have children. I can live without them, I can't live without you. You light up my world, Roza. There's no way I could live without you."